Inbetween
by DellaNee-Chan
Summary: The story behind two people who were meant for each other how exactly they grew so close, and ended up the way they did. KyoyaxKaoru
1. Chapter 1

**Here it is, the first story I'm writing for my true OTP. I'm a little rusty on writing OHSHC, so cut me a bit of slack for now. Hopefully I fall back into writing clearly for it soon enough, but I can't even explain to you how hard it was for me to stay in character and focus on the story. I blame my lack of interest of writing and OHSHC in general, I think I drained myself back in S&C. Well, here's the deal with this particular story. As much as I**_** want**_** to base it around the manga, I think I'll keep it strictly to the anime, and branch out on my own once I reach the ending. Because I haven't read the manga in such a long time and I want everything to be as accurate as possible. So I hope you enjoy! Please leave a review!**

**I do not own OHSHC**

.oOo. Chapter One .oOo.

_"Bye the way, a question about your strategy, did you ever consider the possibility the date might go too well and those two might fall in love?"_

_ "Nah, it's still too soon for that, Hikaru is kind of a dummy"_

_ "Hey come down here, it's time for some melon~!"_

_ "Well, then he's lucky, because our club is full of dummies."_

It was funny, Kaoru had given so much up today, and yet, he found himself comfortably discussing love with the last person he expected to be. Today marked the day Kaoru opened the gates to their world, and allowed Hikaru to take a timid step out. It was only a matter of time before he walked out, and soon enough, he'll be running. Haruhi was the key for him, but it was another story for Kaoru. He wasn't ready to leave yet. Kaoru was perfectly comfortable watching Hikaru bound away without him, and was happy to help him go.

Well, that wasn't exactly fair to say of Kaoru, he was stepping out, too. Lately, he's been spending a lot of time with Kyoya, designing costumes for the upcoming host club events. It used to be him and Hikaru, but it seems Hikaru has been more distracted with video games and Haruhi, not much time for costumes. Kaoru didn't mind too much, though it was rather difficult not to have a second opinion. One day when Kaoru brought in some sketches to show Kyoya, the upperclassmen noticed the sudden change in the style, it was more clean cut then flamboyant and carefree. After getting an earful of suggestions and revises from the demon lord, Kaoru sarcastically snapped, "Why don't you just help me when I'm making them if you have so many ideas then?"

Then they ended up meeting once a week, every Friday afternoon in the Hitachiin estate. At first, Kaoru was nervous. He couldn't really trust the shadow king. But after a few meetings, he learned that he wasn't so bad. They actually got along quite well. Kyoya wasn't always a cold-hearted demon, rather just a very polite and kind person, at least when he didn't consider something actual work.

"Come on then, don't you want some watermelon?" Kyoya said, pulling Kaoru from his thoughts. He looked up at Kyoya, the light reflected off his glasses as he smirked. (Kyoya didn't quite_ smile_). They headed down the stairs, joining the rest of the club.

.oOo. One Week Later .oOo.

"I think the frills are a bit too much on this shirt, don't you?"

"But it's supposed to be all royal and princely, plus I think it fits Tono quite well."

"Maybe, but I feel like it's a bit too dramatic, and it might be too uncomfortable."

Kaoru and Kyoya were sitting in the main dining room, drawings for a future cosplay spread across the table. Tamaki had decided on fairy tales, so Kaoru took the liberty of inputting his own kind of style for each of the outfits. Just making them Disney-based or anything like that would be too boring.

Kaoru nodded, taking the picture and scribbling a few words onto it. Kyoya picked up two this time, both meant for Mori. Honey was supposed to be the little mermaid, and Mori had two choices. "Why did you design Mori-Senpai a lobster costume?"

Kaoru laughed. "I thought it would be cute, instead of making him Prince Eric he could be Honey-Senpai's caretaker. It made a lot of sense to me at three in the morning."

Kyoya smirked, "Yes, it does fit quite well, maybe we should go with it." The upperclassmen placed it into their "create" pile. Kaoru laughed a little harder-it looked like Kyoya _did_ have a sense of humor.

He picked up Haruhi's next, which was an elegant blue dress and glass slippers. He studied it for a moment. "Kaoru, are you really okay with giving up Haruhi for Hikaru's sake?"

Kaoru blinked, he didn't expect this. "Well... It isn't so much me giving up on her, rather I realized she isn't like that to me. She was the first person to truly break into the world Hikaru and I had made for ourselves. At first I thought I liked her, but then I found out that feeling was just friendly. And you, Senpai? What is she to you?"

Kyoya chuckled. "If I thought of her as anything more to me than a friend, she wouldn't just be a friend at this point." Now that he thought about it, Kaoru knew Kyoya would do anything to get what he wanted. A shiver ran down his spine.

"True, very true." Kaoru wondered if Kyoya actually did like anyone. Would he have actually admitted to liking Haruhi in the first place?

They moved onto the twins' costumes. They were supposed to be Hanzel and Gretel. "Who's the lucky one in the dress?" Kaoru sighed.

"That would be me. Hikaru is the more dominant one in the act, so he gets to wear the pants."

"Well at least you'll be cute." Kyoya chuckled, making the younger Hitachiin blush a bit out of embarrassment.

"Shut up, Senpai!"

.oOo.


	2. Chapter 2

**You remember when I said I would branch off once I reached the end of the anime? Well, it's a lot closer ****th****a****n**** I expected. Episodes after 16 aren't much to work with. I was going to do something with Kyoya's Reluctant Day Out, but then I would be leaving the canon story and I don't want that. So there are going to be some weird time jumps and then the end will be here ****before you know it. At that point I start to branch away on my own story line. Knowing myself, I'll probably reference some chapters of the manga, but I will restrain myself as much as possible.**

**I do not own OHSHC**

.oOo. Chapter Two .oOo.

Halloween was on its way, and Kaoru had a few ideas for their cosplay. Him and Kyoya were seated in a den in the Hitachiin estate.

"What about zombies?" He pitched to Kyoya, pulling out a sketch from his folder of ideas. It showcased Tamaki with ripped clothing covered in blood stains. He looked dirty and only had one arm.

"That would work, if we planned on _scaring _our customers, but we need to play to their fantasies." Kyoya took the drawing from Kaoru and placed it into the "No-Way-In-Hell" pile. Kaoru frowned, he was really excited about that one.

"You obviously haven't seen _Warm Bodies_."

"Any other ideas?" Kyoya ordered. This wasn't the first time he snapped at Kaoru today.

"Well, I have a ghost sketch here. We could all have tragic stories of our deaths." He pulled out a sketch of Honey-Senpai in a long white night gown. He even drew in a silly Charlie Brown ghost costume for Usa-Chan.

"That could work, though it would be a little too depressing." Kaoru placed the sketch into the "Maybe" pile.

"I don't think it would be depressing. Wouldn't girls love it? 'Oh, Tamaki-Sama, I will send you to heaven kyaaaaaa~'" Kaoru stood up and dramatically imitated one of their clients, swaying back and forth while his hands folded over his heart.

"Kaoru, please focus. We don't have the time to play around," Kyoya growled. Kaoru plopped down on the couch next to Kyoya and studied the look on his upperclassman's face. "What?" Kyoya glared down at him, his eyebrows knitting.

Kaoru placed his finger in between Kyoya's eyebrows. "You'll get wrinkles at a young age if you knit your eyebrows like that." Kyoya sighed. "What's wrong with you today?"

"I stayed up all night balancing the Berlin accounts, and had meetings all day. Excuse me if I'm a little high strung," Kyoya barked, his glasses reflecting the light.

"Well, you could have said that earlier. We can just meet tomorrow for this… There's still time before Halloween, go home and rest." Kaoru began to clean things up, placing papers back into their respective folders and such. Kyoya placed his hand on Kaoru's wrist.

"No, we can finish. I apologize for snapping at you... It was rude of me to do." Kaoru looked at Kyoya for a moment, then placed the folders down.

"Fine, one more pitch and then we're done. Vampires."

"Vampires?" Kyoya smirked. "Perfect, they'll love vampires." Kaoru pulled out a paper from a folder. This sketch was of Kyoya in a cape with a big collar surrounding his head. Beneath the cape was an elegant suit, very _Dracula_.

"What do you think? Should I have gone a more_ Twilight_ route?" Kyoya shook his head.

"No, these are perfect."

.oOo. A Few Days Later .oOo.

This was an emergency meeting. It was do or die. Keep Haruhi or let her go... to Lobelia. Kaoru was madly tossing dresses out of a closet, clothes flying in all directions. Kyoya was doing his best to arrange them neatly, but Kaoru just kept flinging.

At one point, Kaoru froze, and began to laugh. "What is it?" Kyoya inquired, curious as to what the boy was laughing so hard at. Kaoru revealed a long black dress from the closet and held it up to Kyoya.

"It's perfect! Oh my gosh, Kyoya, you're going to be_ adorable._" Kaoru was giggling madly. Kyoya shook his head.

"Oh, no. No way in hell am I wearing a dress. You fools do as you please, but do not drag me into this."

"But senpai, you'd be so pretty!" Kaoru began placing the dress on a mannequin. "It fits you so well! It brings out those gorgeous eyes of yours!"

Kyoya raised his eyebrows. "Gorgeous eyes? I'm sorry, but no matter how tempting your compliments are, there is no way you're putting me in that dress."

Kaoru grinned mischievously. Oh, that dress was going on him tomorrow, all right. He'd be sure of that.

.oOo. The Next Day .oOo.

Kyoya walked out of the dressing room in the back of music room 3. He was in that dress, alright, and he was going to kill Hitachiin Kaoru.

It all started when his last class ended-one of his classmates had been carrying a pair of scissors and tripped, effectively ripping a hole into the right leg of his uniform. She apologized profusely, and "luckily" Kyoya wasn't hurt. But he knew all too well she was a client of the twins. This wasn't too bad, though, it was easily fixed. But then, Tamaki was running into the music room behind him, holding a bucket of water. He just so happened to trip right as he passed Kyoya, effectively soaking him head to toe.

Kyoya always kept spare uniforms in the dressing room, so this didn't seem too bad, but he had a feeling he knew exactly what he would find there-absolutely nothing but the dress.

_Ooooh, Hitachiin Kaoru, you better sleep with one eye open._

.oOo.


	3. Chapter 3

**So I actually finished this a while back, but the file was corrupted for unknown reasons and I have to rewrite it. It took me a bit to muster up the energy to, because recently I haven't been the most motivated to write this. But here! Also, thank you for the reviews! It really helped to get me to come and write this chapter.**

**I've also kinda lost my Beta to college, so I this is kinda a blind upoad because I just really wanted to get a chapter out and it sucks knowing I have one for you and I just can't get it out because I don't have an editor. I need to find a new one and soon, so I can get these out to you in the way I want them to be. To be honest I think it'll be hard to replace this Beta, since she has always gone in the same direction as me and I don't know if I can find someone else like that. So sorry for the delay.**

**I do not own OHSHC**

.oOo. Chapter Three .oOo.

The Ouran Fair was coming to an end, but the happiness it brought lingered within Kaoru. He sat at an empty table with a cheesy grin plastered on his face, watching the guests file out of the main ballroom one by one.

His feet ached from all the dancing, and he was just exhausted from all of today's events. He wondered what the club was going to be like from here on out. Honey-Senpai and Mori-Senpai will be going to Ouran University soon enough, and it seems Tamaki has finally realized his feelings for Haruhi, then again he might have considered this fatherly love again. Back to the good ol' standstill. Then again, that meant Hikaru still had a chance. Kaoru then wondered where _his_ future lied. What would happen to him?

Kaoru's eyes shifted to where the shadow king was standing. He was saying goodbye to one of their clients, probably a business partner. After the girl and her parents walked out, Kyoya's eyes met Kaoru's. He smirked and started to walk over.

"Tired?" Kyoya asked him, taking a seat on the chair next to Kaoru's.

"Exhausted! Aren't you?"

"It was a long day," Kyoya nodded,

"Maybe this is just me, but I feel like today is the end of something, lnd now something new is about to start, but I can't tell what," Kaoru observed, he felt all too comfortable sharing such thoughts with Kyoya. This wasn't the first time, after all.

"I feel this too. As if today was the ending of chapter, and tomorrow will be the start of a new one." Kyoya chuckled. "And knowing the people we surround ourselves with, it'll be just as exciting and eventful as the last," Kyoya responded, his gaze falling on where Tamaki and Hikaru were bothering Haruhi.

Kaoru studied Kyoya's face. He really was handsome, and right now he could get a good look at his eyes. They were a dark gray color, Kaoru found this color so beautiful, it really did suite Kyoya. He felt like he could get lost in those eyes.

Wait, this is _Kyoya_ he was thinking about. Kaoru shook his head, blushing madly. "Something wrong Kaoru?" Kyoya looked back to Kaoru.

"No, nothing. Just felt myself falling asleep."

.oOo. A Few Days Later .oOo.

It's almost as if the fair never happened. Everything seemed to just fall back into place. Tamaki and Hikaru seemed to always be fighting for Haruhi's attention, Kaoru joined his brother a few times, but he really didn't feel like playing with her anymore. His attention seemed to always bring itself to Kyoya now.

He found his eye's wonder to the shadow king whenever his attention wasn't on the brotherly love act. He wanted to know more about him, he wanted to stare into his eyes, he wanted...

_No! Bad Kaoru! You're not aloud to like Kyoya! For one, he's a guy! And he's KYOYA. You know, the one who would ship you off to the Sahara Desert while you slept if you pissed him off. The one who probably doesn't even know how to romance! If he found out, I don't even know what would happen! _

Kaoru knew he was exaggerating, but seriously, it's Kyoya, the shadow king. Would he even consider a guy, let alone Kaoru? He doubted it.

Yet he couldn't help it. He couldn't help but feel the way he did, no matter how helpless, or potentially dangerous.


End file.
